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Decent income for the poor: which role for Europe?

Author

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  • Bea Cantillon
  • Sarah Marchal

Abstract

Social Europe is under lingering construction. Not only does the EU indirectly (and increasingly) impact on national social policies, the Union itself is slowly evolving towards more social governance as has become apparent with the inclusion of social indicators in the European Semester. This notwithstanding, apart from the coordination of social security rights for mobile workers, anti-discrimination legislation, and health and safety standards at work, social policy remains an exclusive national competence. Moreover, it is guaranteed to remain so through the legal subsidiarity principle. As a consequence, EU social policy has to a large extent been limited to soft governance initiatives that aim to influence national policies in order to achieve commonly agreed social goals. These goals are defined as social outcomes, rather than the means through which they are achieved, a governance model known as “second order output governance” (Vandenbroucke, Cantillon, Van Mechelen, Goedemé, & Van Lancker, 2013). However, over the past decades, despite the ambitious Lisbon and EU2020 social targets, many EU Member States have failed to make progress in fighting poverty. Since the crisis the picture has become truly negative, not in the least due to strong diverging trends within the Union. Meanwhile, the indirect influence of the EU on national social policies has increased. This begs the question whether a more performant EU level involvement in the field of social policy is conceivable, within the constraints set by the European Treaties. In this paper, we argue that European minimum standards are the place to start. Thereby, a broad approach should be taken, including principles for minimum social security and minimum wages. To this end we believe that time has come for a modest shift to “second order input governance”. More in particular, we propose to include policy indicators regarding minimum income protection sensu lato, in the recently revised EU monitoring process of the European Semester. We assess the current (im)balances in national minimum income packages, and discuss in depth the potential value of including the indicators in a structured EU monitoring, as well as their main drawbacks and limitations.

Suggested Citation

  • Bea Cantillon & Sarah Marchal, 2016. "Decent income for the poor: which role for Europe?," Working Papers 1601, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    • Handle: RePEc:hdl:wpaper:1601
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    13. Natascha Van Mechelen & Sarah Marchal & Tim Goedemé & Ive Marx & Bea Cantillon, 2011. "The CSB-Minimum Income Protection Indicators dataset (CSB-MIPI)," Working Papers 1105, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dieter Vandelannoote & Gerlinde Verbist, 2016. "The design of in-work benefits: how to boost employment and combat poverty in Belgium," ImPRovE Working Papers 16/15, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    2. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2021. "Antipoverty Effects of Various Social Transfers and Income Taxes Across Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 1055-1076, April.
    3. Klaudijo Klaser, 2020. "A Theory of Justice of John Rawls as Basis for European Fiscal Union," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 11(1-2).
    4. Tess Penne & Ilse Cornelis & Bérénice Storms, 2019. "Reducing out-of-pocket costs to improve the adequacy of minimum income protection? Reference budgets as an EU policy indicator: The Belgian case," Working Papers 1906, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    5. Johanna Greiss & Bea Cantillon & Sarah Marchal & Tess Penne, 2019. "Europe as agent that fills the gaps? The case of FEAD," Working Papers 1903, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    6. Filauro, Stefano & Parolin, Zachary, 2018. "Income Inequality in the European Union & United States: A Comparative Decomposition," SocArXiv g4cd3, Center for Open Science.
    7. Bea Cantillon & Zachary Parolin & Diego Collado, 2018. "Rising Inequalities and Welfare Generosity: Structural Constraints on the Adequacy of Minimum Incomes in European and American Welfare States," Working Papers 1809, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    8. Tess Penne & Ilse Cornelis & Bérénice Storms, 2020. "All we need is…," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 991-1013, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Europe; minimum income protection; EU; social policy; social floor;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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